April 21, 2005
A Move By Fields Causes Stir on Board
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
New York Times

In her nearly eight years as Manhattan borough president, C. Virginia Fields, who is running for mayor, has largely sought to avoid controversy, promoting herself as a balm on raw nerves.

But in the last few weeks, not only has she gained headlines for attacking an opponent, Fernando Ferrer, but she has also found herself in a squall over the seemingly mundane matter of community board appointments. This involves the removal of the outspoken, high-profile chairwoman of Community Board 1, which represents downtown Manhattan.

At the board's meeting on Tuesday night, a parade of board members and downtown residents denounced the decision by Ms. Fields to remove the chairwoman, Madelyn Wils, who had been on the board since 1987 and had led it since 2000, earning a reputation as a prominent advocate for thoughtful redevelopment after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack.

Ms. Fields said Ms. Wils was too heavily involved in other activities to devote sufficient energy to the board, and aides in the borough president's office said further that they wanted to avoid any potential conflicts of interests stemming from Ms. Wils's multiple roles.

Ms. Wils is a member of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation and the sole downtown resident on its board, and is the president and chief executive of the TriBeCa Film Institute, a nonprofit organization set up by the actor Robert De Niro and others. She is also a board member of the Hudson River Park Trust, a city and state government organization operating a park on the river, and of a civic group, the Downtown Alliance.

A majority of the community board, 29 of the 49 members, signed a petition addressed to Ms. Fields asking her to reconsider the decision. At the meeting, board members said they would ask Ms. Fields to address the board to explain her rationale. And before, during and after the meeting, many board members and local residents made it plain that Ms. Fields's action baffled and angered them, though they understood the two did not get along.

"Madelyn is very visible," said Patricia Moore, a board member, speaking before the meeting. "She is everywhere, being photographed, when a cornerstone is being laid, at L.M.D.C. meetings. Truthfully, I don't see Virginia anywhere."

Michael Connolly, another board member, told the audience that "it's hard to see how this decision makes any sense," and Gwen Bey, a Battery Park City resident, called it an "outrageous removal."

Ms. Wils arrived a bit late to the Tuesday night meeting and was immediately called to the front to speak, choking up as she thanked board members for their support and promising to carry on advocating for downtown's needs.

"I feel touched and sad and happy, but that's life," she said, adding she would carry on with her work in other organizations. "I'm not going anywhere." She then left for a reception for the TriBeCa Film Festival.

In an interview yesterday, she declined to discuss in detail her dealings with Ms. Fields but said, "I think it would have been preferable to stay to the end of my term, but she felt strongly that I not." She added, "I don't think any board member could say I don't pay attention or work my hardest for the board."

The board passed a resolution praising Ms. Wils's service, with a few members abstaining, including Marc Ameruso, who unsuccessfully challenged Ms. Wils last year for the chairmanship. He said chairmen should devote all their energies to the board. "The next chair needs to wear one hat," he said.

Members of the board, largely an advisory panel on community concerns and development, usually serve two-year terms at the pleasure of the borough president. Ms. Fields said she advised Ms. Wils last year that despite her winning a two-year term as chairwoman, she would reappoint her only for another year, to complete projects she began. Her term expired March 31.

Ms. Wils confirmed the conversation but said she had hoped she could remain on the board until next year.

The removal of a board chairwoman was a rare, though not unprecedented, move for a borough president, aides to Ms. Fields said. But Ms. Fields said she believed that given Ms. Wils's involvement in other groups, it was time to encourage other leadership on the board.

Ms. Fields went on to praise Ms. Wils's "tremendous work."

But board members, who last June re-elected Ms. Wils as chairwoman, said they were caught off guard by the move, with many saying they learned of it only through an article in The Downtown Express, which first reported the removal.

Friends of Ms. Wils, who has been described as hard-charging, and members of Ms. Fields's staff, who prefer quiet negotiation, said the two had personality conflicts in the past.